


Maybe Tomorrow

by orphan_account



Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Hermitcraft - Freeform, M/M, Minecraft, This is my first fic on this site, idfk how to tag, lmk what you think i guess, so i mean, well uh, when you think about it, you could say only one bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 06:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: An action-filled chase through the nether turns into a relaxed, calm evening at Grian's base.





	Maybe Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic, please let me know what you thought in the comments!

The Nether portal was in sight, and never before in his life had Mumbo Jumbo been so happy to see that distinct purple glow. With a ghast, nearly 30 angered zombie pigmen, and 8 mini magma cubes chasing after them, him and Grian never thought they’d find it in time to make it back to Grian’s base alive. Nevertheless, there it was. 

Grian was running right behind Mumbo, them having built only a one block wide bridge between the two netherrack islands they’d been exploring. 

_ A stupid idea in hindsight,  _ the moustached man thought, as the two boys reached the portal. 

He was about to jump through it when a harsh grunt from behind made him stop and turn to look. 

“Mumbo, help!” The builder cried from the floor of the bridge, right before it reached the island. He was pushed onto the netherrack by the horde of pigmen who’d been hot on their trail, and was getting golden swords swung at him left and right. 

Mumbo didn’t hesitate one bit to pull out his diamond sword and start slashing at the mobs like there was no tomorrow, which in this case, could’ve been the truth for them. 

While Mumbo held off the mobs, Grian got up off of the ground under him, and focused on firing arrows at the ghast who was currently destroying their frail bridge, fireball by fireball. He shot one, with perfect aim, and hit the tearful mob directly in the eye. 

“Ha! Bullseye!” The newfound archer beamed, before looking back to Mumbo, who was running directly toward him, followed by 8 bouncing baby magma cubes who left lava-prints wherever they landed. 

“This is no time for celebration, let’s go!” The redstoner chided, gripping Grian by the hand and pulling the both of them through the portal. 

After a few quiet minutes, with the only noises in the room being the soft  _ hrrm _ s of Grian’s villager farms and the quiet but quick breaths of the two men as they both tried to steady their breathing paces, Grian walked over to Mumbo sitting on the floor of the base and sat on the hard concrete ground next to him. It was nighttime, and the quiet noises of the ocean tide around Grian’s base were soothing the both of them as they stared into the purple glow of the Nether portal. The intense light gave off a warm heat source, lulling them further.

__

Soon enough, Mumbo broke the near-silence, “That was absolutely wild.”

“Yeah,” Grian agreed. “I still can’t believe you managed to take on that many pigmen at once. You could’ve been killed!”

“Well, it was your own fault for angering them in the first place. You know you can kill magma cubes with weapons  _ other  _ than arrows, right?” Mumbo asked playfully, giving Grian a taunting smirk. 

Grian rolled his eyes and smiled back, “I’ve told you, I’m trying to get better with bows. You never know when you’ll need a good long range attack. That was the key in winning the prank war, anyway.”

“So that’s where this idea’s come from, the civil war? You know nothing like that will ever happen in a normal survival world.”

“Of course I know, don’t be ridiculous. I just think it’s a good idea to be prepared for anything, that’s all. Besides, I didn’t mean to hit the pigman, it walked right in front of my shot!” Grian said, gesturing wildly with his hands.

“Of course it did,” Mumbo nodded, getting lost in the mesmerizing swirls and patterns that the portal in front of them produced.

The room was quiet again, as they both relaxed further while staring into the portal. Mumbo stopped to look over at Grian, whose eyes were nearly shut while gazing into the portal’s light. 

_ Damn, did he look gorgeous in that lighting.  _

The hard truth was, Mumbo had feelings for Grian. Deep feelings, feelings of  _ more  _ than friendship. He wanted to tell him, he’d almost told him many times, but the redstoner could never build up the courage to do it. If Grian didn’t have the same feelings for him, he could rip their friendship apart. He’d decided that burying his true feelings was the best policy, because a lifetime of friendship would be better in his mind than a lifetime of awkward side-eye contact and mutual shunning with the one hermit he really cared about. 

  
  
It was getting late, and the both of them were falling asleep at different paces while listening to the gentle waves crash around Grian’s base. Everything was finally silent until Mumbo, who was still relatively more awake than Grian, heard that telltale  _ squish  _ of a slime hopping on the ground. 

He raised his head to look, only to be filled with dread and panic as two fully grown magma cubes made their way through the Nether portal, jumping toward him and his drowsy friend. 

Instincts told him to pull out his sword, but he quickly dismissed that idea; if he mishandled the situation, both him and Grian could get severely injured. So he made a different decision, stood from the floor and shook Grian’s shoulder lightly. 

“Grian.”

“Mmh, what is it?” The smaller man whined, not opening his eyes. 

“Erm, I don’t mean to alarm you, but you have to fly us both to the next floor up right now, or we’re both going to be piles of ash in the next thirty seconds.” This really was his only idea at the moment, seeing as Grian had almost fallen asleep still strapped onto his elytra. 

Grian opened one eye, sitting up only slightly, and quirked a brow at Mumbo, “Didn’t you bring your elytra? Go fly by yourself.”

It had been a long time since Mumbo last actually brought a pair of elytra with him to the Nether, following a particularly bad crash resulting in death and loss of a perfectly good wing set. 

He took hold of Grian’s left arm and tugged him to his feet, getting impatient and more anxious by the second, “There. Are. Magma. Cubes. In. Your. Base, you ignorant sod,” He punctuated every word with another tug of Grian’s arm, “And they’re about to kill us both, so I’d suggest you move it along, yeah?”

Grian huffed, finally on his feet as he looked over to see the mobs, who were, indeed, about to kill them. He rolled his eyes, pulling a stack of rockets out of his inventory.

“Yeah, alright, come on then,” Grian decided, reaching out both arms for Mumbo to… grab onto? 

“I can’t just hold onto you like that,” Mumbo retorted, “We’ll crash.” He crossed his arms, making concerned eye contact.

“No, you spoon, that’s not what I meant,” Grian sighed, walking up to Mumbo and simply picking him up bridal style, no biggie. He was stronger than most of the Hermits would think, after all. He only had the heavy blocks his base required to thank for that.

“What-- Hey!” The redstoner exclaimed, certainly not expecting this, of all things.

“Hold on tight,” Grian instructed him, and Mumbo did just as he was told as Grian shot off rockets left and right, desperately trying to get the both of them up off the ground. They barely made it before the bouncing blobs of lava would have sent both of them up in flames. 

Grian looked down at Mumbo in his arms for barely a second, and the both of them burst into laughter as they flew up to the second floor. They couldn’t manage to calm themselves down from their giggling enough to hear a particularly loud  _ schlomp  _ from one of the magma cubes, which sent a drop of lava splashing up through the air, landing directly on Grian’s arm. Grian cried out in pain, his flight pattern was entirely disrupted, and the two of them crash-landed on the second floor of Grian’s base, the builder breaking Mumbo’s fall. Mumbo opened his eyes again, not realizing he’d closed them as they’d crashed, only to be met with Grian’s baby blues under him. The whole situation would have been awkward, had it not been for the tears Mumbo could so clearly see welling up in his friend’s eyes. 

He got to his feet immediately, pulled an ender chest out of his inventory, and placed it down. He began rifling through its contents, searching for something, anything he could use to comfort Grian, who was holding his arm in pain, lying on the cold concrete floor. He pulled out a red bed, a bucket of water, and a tuft of white wool. He’d be thanking God that he had those materials, if he believed in one.

He placed the beds down, set the water bucket on the ground next to it, and shoved the wool into his inner suit pocket. He reached a hand out to Grian. The smaller man took the helping hand, reluctantly stood up and sat on the bed, feet hanging over the side. Mumbo sat next to him, picking up the bucket of water. 

“I have to warn you,” Mumbo started, placing a gentle hand on Grian’s shoulder. “That looks like a second degree burn. I’m going to have to clean it, and it’s probably going to hurt.”

Grian looked up from his burn to meet with Mumbo’s eyes for a moment. The builder looked more afraid and vulnerable than he ever had, at least in front of any of the Hermits. Mumbo didn’t want to cause his friend pain, but it had to be done. He needed to treat the wound, using the little medical knowledge he possessed.

“...I’m sorry it has to be this way,” The redstoner spoke, voice wavering slightly with worry. “Ready?” 

Grian gulped. “Yeah, ready.”

Mumbo nodded, pulling the wool out of his pocket and dipping it into the bucket of water. Keeping a steady hand on his friend’s shoulder, he began lightly dabbing the soaked wool on Grian’s burn. The blonde winced, obviously in pain, and those quiet noises filled Mumbo with a deep sadness for his friend, who was clearly trying and failing not to let it be known that he was seriously hurting. 

Once he was done cleaning the burn, Mumbo set the wet wool down on the floor next to the beds, and pulled out a long, dry, thin strip of wool from another suit pocket. 

“I’m just going to wrap it now, and that’s about all I can do. Ready?” Mumbo asked, glad this process was just about over.

“Sure, go ahead,” Grian replied, surprised his voice was as clear as it was. He’d gotten close to crying just then, but he couldn’t embarrass himself in front of Mumbo. The taller man was really his only close friend of the Hermits, and the builder cared about him. More than he’d like to admit, really. He only ever thought those thoughts when he was absolutely  _ sure _ he was alone, though, because he knew his feelings would forever be unrequited. A posh redstone genius would never go for a foolish builder like him. Still, however, there was always that nagging voice in the back of his mind, telling him to just  _ go for it. _ He’d trained himself not to listen too intently to that voice. 

Mumbo nodded once again, and wrapped the wool around the burn as if it were medical gauze. The wrapping process was much easier than the disinfecting, the moustached man simply tucking the loose end of the wool under the rest of the wrapping to secure it once he was finished. 

Grian let out a sigh of relief, grateful that his burn wasn’t giving him nearly as much pain now as it initially had been. He looked up from his injury into Mumbo’s eyes once again, this time wearing an innocent face of thankfulness. Mumbo returned the gaze, holding eye contact with the builder for an extended period of time, which neither of them seemed to mind. 

Soon enough, Grian realized how long they’d been looking at one another.  _ This isn’t what friends do,  _ he told himself, before breaking their gaze and looking out the glass wall of the base at the glorious ocean, whose tides were more calm now than they’d been all evening.

Mumbo felt a little hurt as Grian broke their eye contact, but he decided it was for the best. After all, a few more seconds of that, and who knows what would have happened? 

Grian was just so perfect to him, so brilliant and dashing. He was talented and chock-full of creative ideas. Sure, he could be clumsy at times, but he only adored the builder more for that. 

Grian sighed softly, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind his ear before speaking, “So you’re sleeping here tonight, then?”

“Hm?” Mumbo let the words register in his head before responding, having been lost in his own thoughts, “Oh, erm, I suppose. If that’s alright with you, of course.”

Grian nodded. 

They were both watching the sea through the brilliant view of one of the  _ many _ windows in Grian’s base. It was quiet. Too quiet, Mumbo thought. 

He could change that, this would be the perfect time to confess. 

He wanted to, but… there was no way. He didn’t have the courage. 

_ Perhaps another day,  _ he thought.  _ Maybe tomorrow. _

  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
